Tuber floridanum

December 11, 2018

This recently described truffle was found scattered amongst an oak-dominated forest from mid-Summer through late Fall.

Figure 1: a) Exposed peridium of T. floridanum after heavy rain removed loose soil. b) Ascii containing two and three reticulated T. floridanum spores. c) Tuber floridanum resting amongst acorns from the host oak tree. This picture also shows the marbled gleba from inside the truffle.

Tuber floridanum (Grupe, et al. 2018)

Phylum: Ascomycota
Class: Pezizomycetes
Order: Pezizales
Family: Tuberaceae
Genus: Tuber
Species: floridanum
Authority: Grupe, et. al. (2018)
Collection #: PLP847_2018_215
Locale: Eaton Rapids, MI

This recently described truffle was found scattered amongst an oak-dominated forest from mid-Summer through late Fall when the first frosts began to set into the landscape of Mid-Michigan. Formerly known only as Tuber sp. 47, the group which described this species was finding this truffle frequently in Florida and also noted its presence on pecan roots in a Brazil plantation (Grupe, 2018).

This truffle, as with all truffles, grows hypogeously below ground. When mature, it produces a distinct, almost nutty odor. The sandy-loam soils this truffle was found in have a pH of 7.5 and were recently disturbed by farm equipment. Truffles seen in Figure 1 only represents three of around 60 T. floridanum truffles found at this site in 2018. One of the close look-alikes to this truffle is T. arnoldianum which can be distinguished by the tenancy for T. arnoldianum ascospores to be longer (23–51 μm) than T. floridanum ascospores (18–47 μm)(Grupe, 2018).

Sources:

Grupe II, A., Sulzbacher , M., Grebenc, T., Healy, R., Bonito, G., & Smith, M. (2018). Tuber brennemanii and Tuber floridanum: Two new Tuber species are among the most commonly detected ectomycorrhizal taxa within commercial pecan (Carya illinoinensis) orchards. Mycologia, 780-790.